Letter: The stories behind Tiverton's headstones

Tuesday

Jul 1, 2014 at 4:08 PM

Kevin O'Connor's front-page story, “Don't bury the past,” in the June 29 edition of The Herald News is journalism at its best. Here are several supplementary facts that provide even more context to his reporting.

Kevin O’Connor’s front-page story, “Don’t bury the past,” in the June 29 edition of The Herald News is journalism at its best. Here are several supplementary facts that provide even more context to his reporting.

The Book of Job is perhaps the most ancient of Hebrew Scriptures, dating back to the time of Abraham, around 2000 BC. It responds to one our most profound questions: “Where is God in the midst of pain and suffering?” But even deeper is his consideration of mortality and eternity.

In Job 14:14, he asks “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, ‘til my change come.” The victorious conclusion is made in Job 19: 25-26: “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

This text is the very basis of the curious Abner Simmons epitaph in Tiverton Historic Cemetery 85. It is also quoted in the glorious music of Handel’s Messiah. These words are not the wisp of a dream, but a rock-solid hope in the future resurrection.

The positioning of headstones facing eastward in Cemetery 10, on Stone Church Road, is well-grounded in the essential Christian belief in this literal, bodily resurrection. This eastern face was most recently illustrated in splendid early-morning shots of the white crosses of Normandy graves on D-Day.

The rising sun directly illumines the white crosses, casting a proportional black shadow behind them, against the verdant background of the soft grass. It is the illustration of hope and new life itself. The word cemetery comes from the Latin coemeterium, the “sleeping place” or “dormitory” and is the basis for the phrase “Rest in Peace.” Not that the soul may sleep, but may this human body rest in peace, awaiting the Resurrection.

The verb for resurrection is to “rise again.” It is from the Greek anistas, literally, to “stand again.” Anistas has the concurrent definition of “east, sunrise and resurrection.” The pilgrim’s orientation is not toward a city on earth, but upward, to the Sun of Righteousness of Malachi 4. A Christian burial service will declare the hopeful triumph of the real Resurrection and Second Coming described in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4. Accounts of courage and valor underscore the truth that you are not really ready to live until you’re surely ready to die.

The divine appointment waits for no one, irrespective of youth or seniority. A stone in Cemetery 17 tells the story of 19th century Orlando W. Hart, who died halfway between 20 and 21 years of age. A wreath at the top declares “Gone Home.” His faith? “He’s gone, that manly frame has fled, And left his friends in tears. Early enrolled among the dead, To sleep till Christ appears.”

At that mortal moment, we know that to trust in the Resurrection is to be asleep in Jesus and eternally alive at the same time.